The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling an elevator using a digital position indicator.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a conventional elevator control apparatus employing an electronic computer, wherein reference numeral 11 denotes a central processing unit, numeral 12 denotes a signal line which consists of an address bus, a data bus and a control bus, numeral 13 denotes a read-only memory (hereinafter referred to as program ROM) which stores program data for controlling the elevator, numeral 5 denotes a read-only memory (hereinafter referred to as data ROM) which stores control data used for a program, numeral 14 denotes a readable/writable memory (hereinafter referred to as RAM) which stores results calculated by the central processing unit 11, reference numeral 42 denotes a setter for setting control data specific to each building, such as the number of floors where the elevator is put into service, the entrance floor of the building, and the like, reference numerals 15 and 16 denote converters which perform such conversions as voltage level conversion of data that are sent to, or received from, the central processing unit 11, analog-to-digital conversion, and serial-parallel conversion, numeral 17 denotes a position indicator connected to the converter 15, and reference numeral 18 denotes elevator equipment connected to the converter 16. The above-mentioned the units are connected to one another through the signal line 12, except for the position indicator 17 and the elevator equipment 18.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the arrangement of the position indicator 17 having seven segments, wherein the segments D.sub.0 to D.sub.7 are each activated according to the number to be displayed. With reference to Table 1 which shows activation states of the bits and the displayed contents, when, for example, "-" is to be displayed, the only the segment "D.sub.6 " should be turned on (i.e. D.sub.6 =1). Therefore, the converter 15 should produce the data "0100 0000" (=40 in hexadecimal number). When "2" is to be displayed, the segments D.sub.0, D.sub.1, D.sub.3, D.sub.4 and D.sub.6 must be turned on. Namely, the converter 15 should produce the data "0101 1011" (=5B in hexadecimal number).
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Bit Display D.sub.7 D.sub.6 D.sub.5 D.sub.4 D.sub.3 D.sub.2 D.sub.1 D.sub.0 ______________________________________ -- 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 3 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 .intg. 9 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 ______________________________________
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating major portions of the control apparatus which is constituted by the central processing unit 11 through up to the elevator equipments 18 of FIG. 1 to produce a position indication signal that drives the position indicator 17.
In FIG. 6, reference numeral 1 denotes a cage position detecting means which produces cage position signals FS in the order of first floor, second floor, - - - successively with the lowermost floor as floor zero, reference numeral 51 denotes a position indicator data setting means which sets position indicator data stored in the data ROM 5, and reference numeral 3 denotes a position indicator signal producing means which receives outputs from the cage position detecting means 1 and from the position indicator data setting means 51. FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating the procedure for producing position indicator data in accordance with FIG. 6. Table 2 shows the contents of the position indicator data setting means 51 that will be referred to when the position indicator 17 of seven segments is to be turned on in a manner of "-1, 1, 2, 3, - - - " successively starting from the lowermost floor.
TABLE 2 ______________________________________ Data Ad- (Hexadecimal Displayed dress notation) content Note ______________________________________ 4000 40 -- for upper digit of floor zero 4001 00 blank for upper digit of 1st floor 4002 00 blank for upper digit of 2nd floor 4003 00 blank for upper digit of 3rd floor .intg. .intg. .intg. .intg. 4100 06 1 for lower digit of floor zero 4101 06 1 for lower digit of 1st floor 4102 5B 2 for lower digit of 2nd floor 4103 4F 3 for lower digit of 3rd floor .intg. .intg. .intg. .intg. ______________________________________
In this case, a digit is displayed by the position indicator 17 that is constructed as shown in FIG. 5. Two indicators are used to display the position of the elevator in two digits. Namely, each floor is displayed by an upper digit and a lower digit in a manner of, for example, -1, 1, 2, 3, - - - ".
In the case of this example, the lowermost floor of the building is displayed as "-1", i.e., the first basement is displayed as "-1". When the cage position signal FS produced by the cage position detecting means indicates floor zero, it means the first basement of the building and the position indicator 17 displays "-1".
The operation will now be described in conjunction with FIGS. 6 and 7. When the elevator is located at the lowermost floor (FS=0), a step 31a obtains an address (FS+4000)=4000 for an upper digit and the position indicator data setting means 15 picks up data of "40" (hexadecimal notation) with reference to Table 2. This data is produced by a step 32 as a data for an upper digit. Then, a step 33a obtains an address (FS+4100)=4100 for a lower digit, and the position indicator data setting means 51 picks up the data of "06" with reference to Table 2. This data is produced by a step 34a as a data for a lower digit. Therefore, the data for the upper digit is "40", the data for the lower digit is "06", and the position indicator 17 indicates "-1" based upon FIG. 5. Similarly, "1, 2, - - - " are successively displayed as the elevator ascends. The number of the underground floors differs depending upon the buildings. Therefore, the lowermost floor may change in a manner of "-2, -1, 1, - - - ".
According to the conventional apparatus for controlling an elevator constructed as described above, the data of position indicator must be changed depending upon the building environment. Namely, the data ROM must be prepared for each of the buildings requiring laborious work and increased cost. Moreover, since the data must be changed for each of the floors, there easily develops error.
That is, when the lowermost floor of the building is the first basement, the data of the position indicator must be set by the position indicator data setting means 51 as shown in Table 2. However, when the building environment is changed, i.e., when the lowermost floor of the building is changed, for example, the second basement, the data of address "4001" of Table 2 must be changed to "40", the data of address "4100" must be changed to "5B", the data of address "4101" must be changed to "06", the data of "4102" must be changed to "06", and the data of "4103" must be changed to "5B", so that the position indicator 17 makes a display in a manner of "-2, -1, 1, 2, 3, - - - ". For this purpose, the data ROM 5 must be prepared for each of the buildings.
The present invention was accomplished in order to eliminate the above-mentioned problems, and its object is to provide an apparatus for controlling an elevator which makes it possible to easily cope with the position indication of an elevator even when the elevator is installed in different types of buildings.